Brooklyn Nets to Host “Biggie Night”

Brooklyn Nets will be hosting “Biggie Night” at their upcoming game on Sunday to Celebrate 20^th Anniversary of Biggie’s Death.

This upcoming weekend, the Brooklyn Nets will hold a "Biggie Night" to celebrate the life of Brooklyn's legendary rapper when the Nets host their cross-city rival New York Knicks on Sunday, March 12^th .

The Barclays Center (Brooklyn, NY) plans to honor Christopher Wallace, Brooklyn's most iconic rapper who was shot and killed on March 9, 1997 in Los Angeles, California.  Sean "Diddy" Combs and Wallace's mother, Voletta Wallace, will be in attendance and paying tribute to Biggie with planned pregame and halftime ceremonies. Wallace's children, T'Yanna Wallace, CJ Wallace, Mark Pitts and Wayne Barrow have also been invited to attend the tribute event.

Notorious B.I.G.'s music has been a fixture at Nets games ever since the franchise moved to Brooklyn in 2012. Biggie’s songs are played before games and at halftime, and many of the rapper's beats are also played as in-game music. The Barclays Center hosted the first-ever Bad Boy Reunion Tour in 2016 when Puff Daddy headlined the sold-out concert that started with a celebration of Biggie's 44th birthday.

"We infuse Brooklyn wherever possible," Brett Yormark, CEO of Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment, stated in an interview with ESPN. "The architecture of the building speaks to the borough 85 percent of our employees are from Brooklyn. When you think of the music we play, we obviously play tribute to artists who have made Brooklyn a home or are from Brooklyn, starting with Jay Z, Biggie and many others. It has become part of our DNA."

Yormark said that “Biggie Night” came together in a very short amount of time after the idea to pay homage to the later rapper was pitched. "It was an easy decision to turn this game into a moment to celebrate Biggie," Yormark said.

"He's from Brooklyn. We play his music. We consider ourselves the home of hip-hop -- both Brooklyn and Barclays Center. It is very appropriate that this night takes place in Brooklyn."

Despite the Nets struggle to an NBA-worst 11-51 record this season, the team has hosted numerous creative events this season. The Nets hosted the first-ever Pride Night on Jan. 25, when the team held a pregame awareness panel with members of the LGBTQ community that included former Net Jason Collins, who became the first openly gay athlete to play in the four major professional sports leagues in North America.